Syria Hands Over Bodies of 2 Foreign Journalists
The bodies of two foreign journalists who were killed in shelling while trapped inside a besieged district in the central Syrian city of Homs have left Syria late Saturday on board a French plane to Paris, the Polish Foreign Ministry said.
Earlier Saturday, Syrian Red Crescent officials handed over the bodies to embassy officials.
French Ambassador Eric Chevallier received the body of French photographer Remi Ochlik, and a Polish diplomat received the remains of American Marie Colvin. U.S. interests in Syria are represented by Poland after the U.S. closed its embassy in Damascus last month.
The bodies, in brown coffins placed on stretchers, were transferred outside the Assad hospital in Damascus and driven away in an ambulance. The journalists’ belongings were placed in black plastic bags.
The Polish Foreign Ministry in Warsaw said the bodies left Syria late Saturday on a French plane headed to Paris. No other details were given.
Colvin, 56, a veteran correspondent for Britain’s Sunday Times, and Ochlik, 28, a photojournalist, had sneaked into Syria illegally to get an eyewitness view of the government crackdown in the country, where thousands have been killed since a popular uprising began a year ago.